2016 Presidential Race: Debate #1

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Daily Nova.

The Presidential Debate that took place was an interesting exchange of information. For the most part both candidates focused on personal attacks, and statements that bashed the other candidate’s credibility. The following analysis will include both candidate’s highlights and lowlights, as well as my thoughts on the winner, the outcomes, and the effects.

Clinton Pros:

Clinton had a complexion the entirety of the debate that reflected exactly what she wanted, that she was more prepared for the debate and ultimately the presidency. Her responses (for the most part) made the crowd and moderator question Trump’s credibility and temper. Another good move on Clinton’s part was to keep Trump on the defensive to try and minimalize the damage that he could possibly do to her. Finally, her ending point about Trumps being a misogynist was very well timed to inflict maximum damage on the Trump front.

Clinton Cons:

Clinton had a horrible start to the debate, there are no other words for this. From the opening, she contradicted herself, and more importantly, left herself exposed to easy attacks from Trump. Perhaps her biggest failure in the debate was her weak response to Trump’s comments on her controversial email server. Clinton also doesn’t know when to compromise when she needs to. When Trump had obvious wins, she should not have tried to salvage them, because it made those losses even larger. This was emphasized when Clinton tried to defend the NAFTA and the TPP trade deals.

Trump Cons:

Trump had one problem in the last two-thirds of the debate; he let Clinton be on the attack too much, and didn’t pounce when he could have. With a few exceptions, he never attacked her when he had an obvious chance to do so. His remarks of about Hillary’s stamina were a massive failure, because it allowed her to use the stereotype of Trump being a “woman hater”. Finally, he should not have talked about how his temperament is good, because that also left room for attacks from Clinton.

Trump Pros:

The first third of the debate was the Trump we know from the primary debates. He was all attack, full of energy, and controlled the crowd well. Trump had two amazing moments in the debate. The first instance was when he exclaimed that he would release his tax returns to the public as soon as Clinton released her 33,000 emails to the public. This was a brilliant move because it set him up for saying that her “mistake” was not really a mistake, but a purposeful action done to deceive the American people. His other pinnacle was when he gave his statement on the economy. For lack of better words, he picked apart and demolished Hillary’s plan and effectively deflected the term “Trump trickle-down economics”. These two points gave him a huge advantage for the entire first third of the debate.

Outcomes:

After carefully analyzing the debate, my conclusion is that Donald J. Trump won the debate, but by a smaller margin than he would have liked to. The reason why I say this is because while Clinton had some seriously powerful attacks, she never had any new phrases or ideas that stuck with the average American. Trump was able to paint Hillary as “just another establishment candidate”, and that her lies are even more serious than we had previously thought.

Effects:

From what I can tell, Trump probably won’t be gaining any more support than what he has (for now), but his main takeaway from the debate is the significant amount of Clinton supporters who will now question her credibility even more. The groups that Clinton is going to start losing from are the people who supported Bernie Sanders in the primary elections, simply because of her inability to address the TPP.

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